Happy New Year!

Happy New Year folks. A new year, a new beginning... or at least that's what we tell ourselves. Every day is a new day, full of opportunities to "break the mold" and do something different. Sounds cheezy and cliche, I know, but it's real if you let it be relevant to you. You know what's a more effective motivator than optimism? CONSEQUENCES. Yes, I'm talking about actively thinking, "what will happen if I don't do something different?" It was Albert Einstein who once said, "Insanity is doing the same thing, over and over again, but expecting different results." I think Hitch said it too. *Kanyeshrug*

So I started working out recently. Not just because a good portion of my Facebook is starting to show either 1) pictures of food or 2) people logging in how fast they run or train for some upcoming marathon (more power to you folks). It was because I got sick of my jeans starting to get a little too snug and it making me feel too self conscious to even leave the house in something that didn't cover my stomach. So every day, I did a little something different. I'd wake up at 5am to go to the gym, say yes to invites to go to an aerobic class, went out for walks, and step away from the computer once in a while to dance around the house. Seems cool to say that I do that, but the best part of doing those things (or anything, really) is the moment between doing nothing and getting up, where I told myself, "go". I don't fight myself, I don't make excuses. I listen to my intuition and just go with it, and I feel happier for it. That, I think, is the best part of it all. Knowing that even if your body is tired, you know what you need to do... thinking about all the reasons for the change in the first place... what will ultimately make you happy.

Today is my rest day. Resting, of course, from yesterday's workout and last night's festivities. Thank goodness for my favorite hangover/comfort food, a little something called "lugaw". It's essentially a rice porridge dish, with fixins like chicken, boiled egg and the like. All sorts of savory goodness AND good for you!

1 cup of rice
1 lb of chicken, cut up into pieces
2 green onions, sliced
1 medium onion, diced
2-3 cloves of garlic, minced
1 teaspoon of ginger, minced
4 cups of chicken broth
1 pinch of saffron
1 tablespoon of salt
1 tablespoon of ground pepper
1 tablespoon of olive oil
optional: boiled egg, lemon/calamansi juice, sriracha (red hot sauce)

Heat olive oil in a pot. Toss in the minced garlic. Once the garlic is toasted, set aside.

Toss onions and ginger in the pot. Once lightly browned, add chicken, salt, and pepper. Once the chicken is lightly browned, add the rice, saffron and chicken broth. Heat until boiling. Once the water starts boiling, cover the pot and set the heat to medium. Stir occasionally. Should take about 20-30 min to cook. Once rice becomes yellow and soupy, put into a bowl and serve with toasted garlic and green onions on top. I'm used to having this with lemon or calamansi juice on top and extra green onions but thanks to Clarissa and my hubby, I'm partial to putting a boiled egg and sriracha on top. Hits the spot every time.

Enjoy!

Lumpia recipe for whatever, man.

Happy Holidays! Hope you folks had a Happy Thanksgiving. In hindsight, I probably should've taken pics of some of the food and friends but who has time to play the voyeur when you're playing hostess? We had a small potluck with a bunch of the hubby's coworkers, which was pretty fun, except I wish they sorted out who's bringing what at least a couple days before Thanksgiving. We ended up with more alcohol than food! I drank awamori for the first time, which I'm now pretty sure that it doubles as gasoline. I don't know if maybe I just drank a low quality brand or something, but it's not nearly as smooth as I'd imagined. In the weeks spent playing the waiting game in a hotel room learning from AFN programming how awamori is something that the Okinawans sort of pride themselves over, I imagined awamori to be something smooth like wine or soju. NO. This hits you like a ton of bricks. It pushes you against a nearby wall and makes you say bad words. I DON'T CARE FOR IT.

On a lighter note, my husband cooked the turkey, which is pretty impressive given that he doesn't really cook that often. I was happy to make lumpia (Filipino eggrolls); a recipe which I had sort of developed while living in GA. Since I love the taste of both vegetable and meat varieties of lumpia, I mixed the two into one happy, savory batch. Funny story, I was at the commissary with the hubby when I asked him, "Hey honey, do you want me to make lumpia this week?" Out of nowhere, this woman turns to me and says, "Can I live with you? I love me some lumpia." LOL. Made my day.

Anywhoo, this is my recipe for lumpia. I usually prefer this over buying the pre-made store variety of lumpia mostly because I like the blend of veggies and meat. Plus, it's more fun to make food yourself. Makes for better portion control, I imagine.

1 lb ground meat (pork or beef)
1 chopped carrot
1 chopped onion
2 chopped green onions
8 cloves of garlic, minced
2 tsp minced ginger
2 cups bean sprouts
2 tsp soy sauce
1 tsp salt
1 tsp ground pepper
1 egg, beaten
oil for frying
lumpia wrappers

First, fry the garlic and onion for maybe a min or two. Toss in the meat, salt and pepper and continue to fry until brown. Drain the meat. Once drained, toss the meat mix in a large bowl with the ginger, green onions, bean sprouts, and soy sauce. Hell, if you like other veggies like corn or cabbage, throw that in there too! Whatever makes your heart smile. Once the mix is done, put a couple spoonfuls of the filling into the lumpia wrappers and close the wrap with a little bit of that egg wash. Some use water to close the wrapper. Fry that puppy up and enjoy with your favorite side sauce! You don't even have to wrap that filling either. You can just put that meat on top of a bed of rice and call it a day. Whatever, man. Whatever.